Sunday dawned a beautiful day after all the rain we have had recently so we were really pleased to be out in the Central Lakes.  With a few guest walkers along from the North East and West Lancs, 18 of us set off along the Coffin route to climb up to Alcock Tarn. 

Claire led a steady pace as we climbed up to the tarn, but we were all quite a bit quicker on the downhill - mainly because the day brought the first real taste of winter freshness and it was darned nippy up there!

Undaunted we turned our attention to the next challenge which was Steel Fell.  Last time we climbed this it was really wet so it was nice to go up with a little sunshine on our backs.  Just goes to show, November is a safer bet than August!  After a little regrouping we headed across to Calf Crag for lunch, followed by a walk along the ridge to Gibson Knott and Helm Cragg. 

The world and his brother were out due to the afternoon sunshine, so we had a nice time dodging both crowds and puddles along the ridge.  A few of the 'boys' who like to be 'men' showed off their tallents by climbing the rocks at the top of Helm Crag - luckily no casualties if a few scraped knees!

Originally Claire had planned to take us to a tea shop in Grasmere and then tackle Silver Howe and Loughrigg.  But it had taken us a while along the ridge, and the tea shop was soooooo nice - we er, opted for the Lake shore route back.  Just as well because it was touching darkness as we arrived back at the cars.

A lovely day, and thanks very much to Claire and her gang for organising it and checking out the many and varied options for the day - the walk leader often does about five walks to the group's one!